The flat-earth types that seem to characterize the social conservatives are pretty scary and they jumped into my mind immediately. But after further reflection, I realize that this 10% tipping point is actually very good news.

Old, flat-earth beliefs are just that - old. If something new comes along, like the theory that the earth revolves around the sun, and the planet is not flat, it gradually becomes the new belief.

It will be interesting to see how political campaigns will use this information.

I've got a dumb question. Why do they return the shuttle back to Earth? Or, why not build a part of the space station out of shuttles; you design the vehicle to serve as the body of the launch vehicle, and as part of the ISS. You could leave off a lot of those tiles if you weren't planning to return.

The crew returns to Earth via a reentry vehicle. Fill the vehicle with supplies, send it up there, and the crew comes back on a specialized reentry bus.

Mirage and Monkeedude are the horse's mouth. Look at their slashdot ID's and you can tell they are new entrants to this rat race.

I suspect the 'locking down to technology' is a pretty serious issue, along with the cost of the sophisticated development environment. And, speaking of development environment, the new graduates are going to be very comfortable with the social networking side of the FOSS world. When there is a problem with a tool, or if they need help with an esoteric problem, the help is ready, willing, and able to help without the condescension you often find in the Microsoft help forums.

The more committed young developers will probably enjoy the FOSS workspace better than the MS world. More satisfaction.

Railcars have been used before. Insulation, airhandling, all the rest will be relatively trivial. Not having the local council ruin your plans will be the tough part.

Moisture will be an issue. You'll need to seal it up and when you do, moisture inside the vehicle will be a problem. You can use a spray foam insulation. For inspiration on how to make confined spaces into a livable space, go tour a yatch.

My brother built a vacation place on Tenakee Springs, Alaska. First thing he did was deliver a shipping container as a quick-and-dirty, bear-proof shelter. The door of it is visible here. Obviously, it is now incorporated into a larger structure.

Contrary to what you might think, this is rocket science.

Maybe that's the trouble. If you ask a rocket scientist how to deal with a problem, they'll give you a rocket. They are trying to dock a ship. If you ask a dockworker they'll give you a different answer. What's wrong with using a rope to snatch that little rascal?

Is there no vehicle for the people on the space station to use so that they can nip out and catch the errant missile? Jeepers, that would have been the first thing that I would deliver. Surely, they had anticipated this happening and considered what to do about it.

It's not clear to me why we're doing this whole space station thing in such a half-assed manner. Why not think in terms of a permanent space station, and all that entails?

Despite what you might have heard, talking to a scientist is only slightly harder than talking to the dead.

The Bush administration violated a few constitutional laws in its effort to close the barn door after the terrorists had burned the barn down. They wanted to impress upon us how earnestly they believed in thwarting the terrorists, so they decided that we needed to give up our rights so that they could score political points.

But, as everybody knows, the Bush administration had more than enough information to do the job long before the terrorists ever hit us. What was needed isn't more information, what was needed was better use of the existing information. (Notice that I'm not using the word intelligence. Clearly, Bush needed more intelligence, but that would not be forthcoming.) But we can expect our leaders to make lazy, self-serving choices rather than to take on the hard jobs they seemed to want so badly.

India is an authoritarian state, perfectly comfortable with internal corruption and cronyism. This choice, to compel telecommunications businesses to open up their data for 'security and intelligence' agencies, will surely be abused for political reasons and its impact on security will be marginal.

The problem with old programs is the Microsoft 'Updates' that add cruft until the system becomes a dog. Microsoft's solution? Buy their new version.

Funny how that works.

Apple currently has a 28% market share of the smartphone market, even with its phone being exclusive to ATT. Opening it to the Verizon network will surely cause its market share to climb sharply.

Right now, Apple is in a three-way tie for the market. It will start to dominate the market if/when it goes onto the Verizon network.

The app store concept is not evil unless traditional distribution is eliminated.

Good point. They will be competing with their own vendors. How's that going to work? Will they be making promises to play nice?

Obviously, their vendors won't have any choice except to bend over, once again. And, obviously, this has all the makings of a total custer fluck - conflicts will be immediate and chronic. Microsoft will be setting up a web site that competes with their vendors, and they will necessarily be offering things that their vendors won't have available. I suppose they had to do something to try to counter Apple's success. Too bad they couldn't think of something original.

Innovation at its finest.

In the past, Microsoft has tried to 'innovate' by tying functionality between their OS and apps. Doing so helps prevent technology from escaping the Microsoft ecosystem and being deployed on competing operating systems, software, and hardware. Having an App Store that is supplied by independent programmers means that those programmers will be able to leverage their work across multiple platforms. This could have worked in Microsoft's favor if they had been early to the game. They could have positioned themselves in the center of a new, connected world and helped steer traffic by and through their world.

Instead, Microsoft has been doing the opposite; attempting to hold users captive to a separate ecosystem, thinking they could provide users with everything they could possibly want. Browsers, search, social networking, heck, even the internet itself happened despite Microsoft, not because of Microsoft.

And, no, corporate IT is not hopping on Microsoft bandwagons like they have in the past. Corporate migration away from XP has been slow, at best. Yes, there are suits who are happy to have Microsoft be the sole vendor of standard desktop apps. But truly interesting things are not done at Microsoft.

For an App Store to work, Microsoft would have to open up its desktop and maintain a backwards compatibility. They have a bad track record on that issue.

Truly, because Microsoft is so large, there will be money made, and truly, they can take some of the wind out of Apple's sails, but there is less to this than meets the eye.

Yeah, Microsoft innovates. Yeah, that's why they dominate the desktop marketplace. Once again, they are ripping off ideas from Apple.

If the OS were free and they made their money in the App Store, this would make more sense - they would be beholden upon revenue from the App Store to survive. But this is just an attempt to counter Apple's success and Apple's increasing mindshare. Microsoft's 'App Store' will be an ugly, controversial mess and will likely drive more business toward Apple.

First question would be - Don't they already have an 'App Store'? Oh, wait, it only sells Microsoft software.

What happens when somebody comes up with something that competes with an existing Microsoft application? I think we already know the answer to that one.

What happens when someone comes up with a truly 'killer app' that becomes hugely successful? Microsoft will first try to buy the app to capture that 'lost' revenue, and if they fail to negotiate a suitably low price, will duplicate the app in-house and compete for that market.

So, someone quickly que the glossy, focus-group approved, TV ads that promise shiny exciting new toys for your already buggy, overburdened laptop.

Everybody sing! I'd like to buy the world an APP, and keep it company, I'd like to promise happy times, and flying chairs to see.

What kind of bike did you get?

I just split up with my (second) wife and bought an old Kawasaki H1. I'm thinking of a Betty Boop tattoo.

I like musicians who get the fermata symbol tattooed on their bodies. (Hold me.)

I've been around the industry for more than twenty years. There is NO sexism where I have worked. When it comes to management, there had been reverse sexism, but that seems to have passed, partly because there are so few women in the industry.

As for why more women are dropping out? I don't know the reasons why, but good for them. I might be about to drop out (or be kicked out) myself. Part of me can hardly wait for it to happen.